All I can say is that Ií am a little disappointed that weíll have to wait that long. I thought he would show up soonerÖ But never mind. Letís hope that Joss wonít kill him again in the finale and that Fox wonít kill the show so that we can see more of him in the second season. ;-)

And im curious, whats the point in labelling the (technical term for what that was...segment?) a 'mega minute' having a countdown and going over? Why even bother other than the alliteration in the title?

I've been studiously avoiding the thread on "who is the actor playing Alpha" so please, nobody spill that can of beans in this thread.

That said, if "not letting us see Alpha's face" is so important (and we've had a big poke in the ribs about that from Echo when she says in Ep. 2 that he has no face), that's gotta mean he's someone we know from elsewhere in the Dollverse, right? That, or it's someone we're going to meet in upcoming eps but won't realize is Alpha.

I suppose the obvious candidate is Ballard--the cop hunting the Dollhouse turns out to be hunting himself. Probably a bit too cheesy for Joss, though. It can't be anyone currently at the Dollhouse, because--one assumes--the others would recognize him. So...that doesn't leave many options, does it? I guess I think it'll be someone else that we meet in upcoming eps as an apparently inoffensive minor character. I'm still guessing that he's they guy holding the video camera for Caroline's 'yearbook' bits.

On preview: That does seem like a long time to keep your Big Bad under wraps.

I guess technically it's only keeping aspect of the Big Bad under wraps. We know he's "Alpha the Quondam Active" ("Had a very shiny knife..."), and presumably the Dollhouse people know quite a lot about him. It would be a bit contrived if they don't tell us some of that info over the coming eps.

Initially, I was kinda bummed that we won't actually get to see Alpha until late in the season, but, then, thinking about it, I think it's gonna work well. We know he's this "big", scary person-thing that shouldn't have been able to happen and yet is capable of all sorts of unspeakable horrors. Keeping him under wraps and in the shadows allows him to be all the more scary.

Like in Serenity (the Firefly pilot rather than the movie, although to some extent in the movie as well), we don't get to see the Reavers, we're just told about them and their unspeakable (barely speakable, since they do speak of them?) acts. That makes them so much more scary and ominous than if we had actually seen these freaky, wild person-things on the screen. Keeping them off screen allows us to be as scared of them as the characters rather than being able to point and go "Wow! Cool makeup!".

Oooo I've had this thought too. It would be a lovely twist, if he was like a sleeper agent and obsessed with the Dollhouse by day as Paul but also an Active gone haywire killing people. And he doesn't remember what he does as Alpha, but Paul just can't stop thinking about this Dollhouse business.

Like in Serenity (the Firefly pilot rather than the movie, although to some extent in the movie as well), we don't get to see the Reavers, we're just told about them and their unspeakable (barely speakable, since they do speak of them?) acts. That makes them so much more scary and ominous than if we had actually seen these freaky, wild person-things on the screen. Keeping them off screen allows us to be as scared of them as the characters rather than being able to point and go "Wow! Cool makeup!".

Yeah. Firefly Reavers were roughly a hundred times freakier than the Serenity version. Incomprehensible, suicidally reckless homicidal maniacs are terrifying. Victims of a drug-experiment-gone-wrong are kinda sad. There's a lot to be said for withholding information.

That does seem like a long time to keep it a mystery. It raises the possibility of having some character we meet sooner be revealed as Alpha in the finale. I kind of doubt this will be the case, however, because then why would the actor in question have announced that he was playing Alpha and not the character we would meet him as first? (probably not a spoiler but I don't want to accidently give away any "hints")

So is this a nefarious plot by Joss & co to get Fox to pick up the 2nd season for more of the Alpha storyline? ;)

What can they do that hasn't been done? It doesn't make it any less compelling if done right. Watching a Cylon sleeper agent become unglued as she realizes she's been unknowingly endangering her friends is great tv, even though neither sleeper agents nor killer robots are a new concept.

What can they do that hasn't been done? It doesn't make it any less compelling if done right. Watching a Cylon sleeper agent become unglued as she realizes she's been unknowingly endangering her friends is great tv, even though neither sleeper agents nor killer robots are a new concept.

No, that's true. It's the how far more than the what that matters. I guess it's more that if they want this to be the big "WTF? No way Alpha was that guy!" moment (which all this "we won't show you who he is until the very end" stuff seems to suggest), then it's going to be hard to bring that off if he's kinda the first guy we all think of.

Initially, I was kinda bummed that we won't actually get to see Alpha until late in the season, but, then, thinking about it, I think it's gonna work well. We know he's this "big", scary person-thing that shouldn't have been able to happen and yet is capable of all sorts of unspeakable horrors. Keeping him under wraps and in the shadows allows him to be all the more scary.

Thatís true, but Iím afraid that by the time Alpha's story finally starts to kick into some serious gear, the show might be already canned. When you have only 13 guaranteed episodes and a possible axe of cancellation constantly hovering above your head you have to speed things up, otherwise your show might be over sooner than youíll get to tell the really interesting parts of the story.

The theory that Ballard is Alpha doesn't work because both Adelle and Dominic know Ballard as an FBI agent who's been snooping around for more than a year, but knows nothing. She also thinks he's less capable than Inspector Clouseau. Alpha has been gone for three months. So, if Ballard is Alpha, wouldn't they know the difference?
Otherwise, it would have been an interesting twist.

I think you've solved it. The adult characters of Sesame Street had to wait 17 seasons to see Snuffy, so it makes sense that Echo has to wait 13 episodes to really see Alpha. (Except Snuffy must have had a massive haircut before sitting unclothed in front of that TV!)

I think you've solved it. The adult characters of Sesame Street had to wait 17 seasons to see Snuffy, so it makes sense that Echo has to wait 13 episodes to really see Alpha. (Except Snuffy must have had a massive haircut before sitting unclothed in front of that TV!)

Wait for the outcry when they go back to that end-of-Ep1 scene and pull the camera back to reveal the bloody corpse of Big Bird in the kitchen. I predict some controversy.

Oh man, it's Bert all the way - there was always something just a bit off about him. Turns out it was his multiply fragmented homicidal personality disorder. Ernie's who I feel for, finding that out about a pal could really knock the stuffing out of you.

Re: Ballard, no it doesn't make sense (pity in one way, maybe a bit of a gimmicky twist in another) but way before that film-of-a-book-that-we-don't-talk-about, wasn't there a detective story (or maybe even a real case) where the detective finally figures out that he committed the murder but in his sleep ? Got a brain tickle but I can't remember any details (and Google's not my friend tonight).

Saje--yeah, that's more like the story I'm thinking about. I've struck out badly on Google too. I can't think of the right set of terms not to just get a bunch of detective novel/movie plots.

Bert? Bert's the one that everybody suspects right at the outset because he's got "ticking time bomb" written all over him. Then, of course, suspicion will swing to Oscar--the social outcast--and Grover--the unrepentant anarchist. The empty cookie jar in the kitchen will send them down a brief, only too obvious, blind alley. But Snuffleupagus, man! No one even believes he exists! (Hey--I'm old-school Sesame Street, don't confuse me with this 'out' Snuffleupagus crap). The only one who witnessed him enter the house was Big Bird, so Big Bird had to die.

The worst thing is that they'll end up pinning it on Big Bird as a murder-suicide. But I've said too much.

The worst thing is that they'll end up pinning it on Big Bird as a murder-suicide. But I've said too much.

So you think they'll suspect fowl play ?

(hey, someone had to go there ;)

Kind of Angel Heart-ish, only with less Satan?

Yeah, ish m'cookies. It's either an old story or it's period because I have a sort of vague 19th century France feeling and I seem to recall the (female) victim was strangled (but it's very possible i'm conflating different stories - certainly the setting sounds like Poe's ur-detective Auguste Dupin, pretty sure it's not him though).

Yeah, ish m'cookies. It's either an old story or it's period because I have a sort of vague 19th century France feeling and I seem to recall the (female) victim was strangled (but it's very possible i'm conflating different stories - certainly the setting sounds like Poe's ur-detective Auguste Dupin, pretty sure it's not him though).

"This," I said, "is the mark of no human hand."

"Read now," replied Dupin, "this passage from Cuvier." It was a minute anatomical and generally descriptive account of the large fulvous Ourang-Outang of the East Indian Islands. The gigantic stature, the prodigious strength and activity, the wild ferocity, and the imitative propensities of these mammalia are sufficiently well known to all. I understood the full horrors of the murder at once.

I turned to Dupin, who was gazing at his reflection in a large pier-glass that adorned the drawing room with a look of slowly-dawning understanding. "What is it?" I asked.

Truly a strange and indistinct language, the sense of which none can make. Also, it'd explain the 14 crates of bananas a day.

Saje, Alpha looked pretty bulky from the back, so I'd say more like some woman on steroids ... I'm just reaching now (And of course, Michael Caine is way too withered to put his wig back on).

Oh yeah, agreed, it's definitely a naked bloke we see but i'm wondering about sharing an imprint or something, passing it back and forth maybe ? Or multiple copies of the same composite personality, like a "composite" of composites ?

Yeah, naked guy could be anyone but it seemed at least implied that he'd killed the dead folk which sounds fairly homicidal maniac-esque to me. I mean, i'm no expert but i've seen 'Manhunter' and 'Silence of the Lambs' and sitting naked in a house with dead folk watching a video of the woman you (possibly) feel you're destined to be with for all eternity does seem to fit the homicidal maniac profile.

Yeah, naked guy could be anyone but it seemed at least implied that he'd killed the dead folk which sounds fairly homicidal maniac-esque to me. I mean, i'm no expert but i've seen 'Manhunter' and 'Silence of the Lambs' and sitting naked in a house with dead folk watching a video of the woman you (possibly) feel you're destined to be with for all eternity does seem to fit the homicidal maniac profile.

Oh, I don't doubt that at all. Well, at least, I assume that Naked Guy has acted as a homicidal maniac acts. But couldn't Naked Guy have been imprinted by Alpha to act that way? I mean, is it possible that Alpha has access to a brain-imprinter relaxychair? So Alpha could be the homicidal maniac behind the scenes, but not necessarily the one out doing all the stabbing and cutting and putting of photos into envelopes.

Yep, distinct possibility though for now i'm going on the premise that he's not imprinting folk left and right for not much better a reason than because I personally prefer the idea of Alpha, like some psychological Rambo, using what he can find or make in the field to play his own twisted version of the dollhouse against itself. It feels more substantial to me, darker in a way, for him to latch onto society's existing psychopathic flotsam and jetsam and manipulate them to his ends.

(but if it were Saunders behind the scenes, she could get around the issue of getting another imprinting machine from somewhere, which is one of my more practical objections to the Alpha-the-big-old-imprinter-dude theory i.e. it can't be easy technology to buy/build/whatever. Course, there're all sorts of other ways around that too. Maybe there're other branches of dollhouse or a prototyping lab or a reclusive original inventor of the technology or similar)

Wait till the last episode before we see him?!? Now that the word is out (and good luck to anyone who thinks they'll avoid this spoiler!) why not introduce him earlier and give us a little more time with him.
I<3 Alpha.

Wait till the last episode before we see him or her?!? Now that the word is out (and good luck to anyone who thinks they'll avoid this spoiler!) why not introduce him or her earlier and give us a little more time with him or her.
I<3 Alpha.

You know, it may well be difficult for those of us who don't want to be spoiled not to be spoiled. But it sure would be easy for those of you who chose to be spoiled not to give away things like the gender of Alpha and whether or not we've already seen him/her etc.

I don't know about this Alpha storyline... 13 episodes? I hope it gets a little more intriguing, a little less passe. It's a little too much like Sylar, without the powers and the lame dialogue. I'm much more interested in knowing about who actually runs the Dollhouse, who Adelle is working for. A storyline in which Topher is killed or imprinted with a non-annoying personality would also be good.

I so love the idea of Saunders being in on it. It would be really twisted if she took that slashing as part of a misdirection.

Indeed. And it would kinda make sense--given that no one else got slashed and lived to tell the tale.

Yep, distinct possibility though for now i'm going on the premise that he's not imprinting folk left and right for not much better a reason than because I personally prefer the idea of Alpha, like some psychological Rambo, using what he can find or make in the field to play his own twisted version of the dollhouse against itself.

Yeah, I agree, actually. If mindwiperelaxychairs proliferate you'll end up in Rambaldi-device world. Too much tennis without a net if everybody ends up being a puppet or a secret agent etc. But even without imprinting, Naked Guy need not be Alpha. Alpha could still have coerced or bribed a psycho killer to do his bidding.

ETA: Yep, true enough. Seems like we're meant to think he is (or else why not show his face, why the air of mystery) but that could be a piece of misdirection itself (like a misdirection onion ;).

I so love the idea of Saunders being in on it. It would be really twisted if she took that slashing as part of a misdirection.

Well, it's like someone (was it you Tonya J ?) said, why did he spare her ? I mean as far as we know, of all the people he meets on his rampage he doesn't kill exactly two, Echo and Saunders. Course, it could just be that Saunders showed him kindness and he remembered that and let her live but then why slash her at all ? So maybe she took it as misdirection (or maybe she did it herself, same reason) or maybe by scarring her Alpha's trying to create another sort of "composite event", the same way he might be trying to do with Echo. But it seems reasonable to assume there's more to Saunders than a shrinking violet physician.

snot, isn't it a little obvious which gender Alpha is...? In the latest episode, we see a silhouette of Alpha standing over Echo, with reference made to Alpha being that person, whose gender is quite clear... I mean, speaking of atypical gender appearances, of course.

snot, isn't it a little obvious which gender Alpha is...? In the latest episode, we see a silhouette of Alpha standing over Echo, with reference made to Alpha being that person, whose gender is quite clear... I mean, speaking of atypical gender appearances, of course.

Well, it's not really clear in that scene that what she sees is exactly the "real" memory. But now that I think about it, the Dollhouse staff refer to Alpha as "he." And I guess they do know. So apologies, Missyu.

snot, I know what you mean about the spoilers though... I have been good with Dollhouse (though I do know who plays Alpha, and I wish I didn't). I always spoil myself with Buffy though--I hate having to wait a month!!!

I think the best thing to do is to avoid discussions where you know there may very well be spoilers you want to avoid. Since this link doesn't specifically mention who will play Alpha (only when we'll see his face), I think Simon made the right call in forbidding that info.

I think the best thing to do is to avoid discussions where you know there may very well be spoilers you want to avoid.

Oh I do, believe me. But once people have been spoiled they find it really hard to imagine that other people haven't been. I do wish Shep would come back to this thread and clean up his/her post. I mean it's a really casual comment which I'm quite sure never crossed Shep's mind as a spoiler, but it really blew up a bunch of tempting lines of speculation.

Everyone's on that Alpha is the bad guy. What if he isn't? What if he is the good guy, in a twisted-homicidal way? After waking, or compositing (is that a word?), he realizes what an evil organization this is and "puts down" the actives that are too far gone to be saved and murders the ones he feels are responsible. The people in the house were actually an active and a client. He doesn't kill Echo because he thinks she can actually be saved, which is why he organized the hunt to wake her up a little.

Not too wild, I think. I'm guessing that Alpha at the very least thinks of himself as the "good guy"--avenging angel, at least. There's something about that scene of the guy sitting naked, calmly watching the video that doesn't suggest "normal," though. And we know that Alpha set up the scenario in Ep 2, which involved killing a harmless ranger and Boyd's driver (pretty unlikely that that guy was somehow central to Dollhouse's activities)--and at the very least involved a reckless disregard for Echo's life.

I think Alpha kinda has to be a nutjob, but no doubt one with an interesting version of his own story.

It's fairly disappointing to me to find out that they're waiting clear until the end of the season for the big reveal of Alpha. Especially considering that realistically, there's probably more of a chance than not that the show will already be cancelled by then.

Although I've been avoiding spoilers generally, I did go ahead and look at the Alpha-casting thread. I don't consider casting to be so much of a spoiler, especially if the actor is a name I might recognize.

Too big a recognition factor could take me out of the moment when the reveal finally happens. And that's what I really don't want to happen.